Smile. We Have Done This A Thousand Times. (Well, 500.)

Matilda is officially on the road! The show has completed its run at Leicester’s Curve and has now set up shop at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford. From one curry capital to another!

In a slightly different tact to other tours I have done, the amount of performances were actually slightly reduced whilst we were in Leicester so that we could continue rehearsing in the daytime. This has allowed us to arrive in Bradford with a fully rehearsed cast of principals, first covers and second covers for all the main characters. Often these rehearsals can take a while to do in an 8-show week, especially on busy tours such as Matilda where the children’s cast also work on the show in the daytimes to keep their performances tip-top.

Now we have the chance to settle the show into a nice rhythm here in Bradford ahead of our Christmas run at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre. The cast are beginning to bond over the occasional curry, escape room, and what seems to have become a traditional round of Traitors! Saturday night, as an aside, was personally my 500th performance of Matilda The Musical since I first started working on the West End production over ten years ago.

I do weirdly enjoy when a long tour schedule stretches out ahead. It’s nice to look forward to future cities, with their fabulous restaurants, cafes, parks and pubs all ready to rediscover, and maybe new ones to try out. Still many more adventures to plan!